Just took up scuba diving and had my first dive!

[BullTerrier]

After years of putting it off (the wife was into it eons ago and kept saying its a beautiful world below) I plucked up my courage and signed up for a diving course last month.

Completed the theory course, went for the first practice at Outram Sec School swimming pool and then last weekend went to Pulau Dayang for my Open Water tests.

My wife was right. After getting over the initial fear of being in a strange environment and the fear of the waters, I was captivated with the peace and serenity of being underwater. Then I noticed the pretty corals, fishes and even came across a sea turtle resting at the seabed. Felt like I was at the filming of Nemo hehehe...

Its a nice change from flying once in while I guess. I took it up to just close the chapter on doing something new once in my life but I am now starting to think abt doing another leisure dive hehehe...

Those of you thinking abt going for it - just do it, you will love it. Just be sure you find a good scuba school pls cos safety is more important than anything else in this hobby ya?

[BullTerrier]

I didn't bring an underwater camera but this filippina lady did and these are her photos...

[BullTerrier]

More photos

[joe yap]

Get the advance course and certified to do deep dive. Dayang has a few deep diving sites with big fishes.

[kelvinlow]

night dive will be another good experience,

everyone carry a battery torchlight,

wow looks like StarWars light sabre

have fun,

sad to see more dead corals

[yongsinchee]

night dive will be another good experience,

everyone carry a battery torchlight,

wow looks like StarWars light sabre

have fun,

sad to see more dead corals

For night dive, you should try switching-off the torch. Very different an quite colourful experience.

[oldmanflying]

Hi BullTerrier,

move to advance diver level if you can, that will be my advice for all divers who wanna explore more. Master some special skills during your advance course;
- Night dive
- Deep dive
- Navigation dive

Take 3 three lessons which will come in very handy when you are doing leisure diving else where.

Proceed further up to Instructor level if you are really into finding a job with diving.

I am a certified Instructor under P@#$... havent been diving (family commitment) since my last dive at Maldives in 2003 with my students catching Manta Rays...

Thats was awesome...

[BullTerrier]

Hi BullTerrier,

move to advance diver level if you can, that will be my advice for all divers who wanna explore more. Master some special skills during your advance course;
- Night dive
- Deep dive
- Navigation dive

Take 3 three lessons which will come in very handy when you are doing leisure diving else where.

Proceed further up to Instructor level if you are really into finding a job with diving.

I am a certified Instructor under P@#$... havent been diving (family commitment) since my last dive at Maldives in 2003 with my students catching Manta Rays...

Thats was awesome...

Thanks for all da advices guys... I am thinking abt the advance open water course but probably after a few more leisure dive trips cos under SSI, you need to log 10 dives first anyway.

[BullTerrier]

Yesterday invited my instructor to come to our flying field and fly with us. I brought my trusty old beaver for him to have a go, think he is hooked. Hehehe he poisoned me da diving I poisoned him da RC flying la.

[buckman]

Congratulations and welcome to the wonderment of the underworld!

Yup, clock in more dives and appreciate the leisure dives before taking your advance. The fun and scary part of your advance cert will be the night dive! wooooooo.....

[BullTerrier]

Congratulations and welcome to the wonderment of the underworld!

Yup, clock in more dives and appreciate the leisure dives before taking your advance. The fun and scary part of your advance cert will be the night dive! wooooooo.....

Yea the night dive sounds terrifying to me... last year June there was an accident in Dayang when a diver doing his night dive got all cut up by a boat propeller when surfacing. They put it on a speed boat and rushed towards Mersing but he didnt make it.

[mh3400]

Yea the night dive sounds terrifying to me... last year June there was an accident in Dayang when a diver doing his night dive got all cut up by a boat propeller when surfacing. They put it on a speed boat and rushed towards Mersing but he didnt make it.

thats is scary

is there water ghost at night

[buckman]

Yea the night dive sounds terrifying to me... last year June there was an accident in Dayang when a diver doing his night dive got all cut up by a boat propeller when surfacing. They put it on a speed boat and rushed towards Mersing but he didnt make it.

Yup, it's really important to hook up with a good and reputable dive shop. This incident must have been one that didn't have the safety protocol put in place, i.e. dive flag, surfacing area, or even a proper dive guide to ensure safety of its dive group.

Hmmm... sounds pretty much like safety protocol in R/C flying too!

[oldmanflying]

Yup, it's really important to hook up with a good and reputable dive shop. This incident must have been one that didn't have the safety protocol put in place, i.e. dive flag, surfacing area, or even a proper dive guide to ensure safety of its dive group.

Hmmm... sounds pretty much like safety protocol in R/C flying too!

not blaming anything or anyone here.

the incident can easily be avoided with proper decent and ascend line away from pick up point.

i was once nearly ended up into the prop too, trying to pull my tired female student away. she was totally exhausted after the dive. in exchange i got hit on my back spine repeatly by the skin of the boat due to the choppy sea... that is the price to pay...

just sharing my 2 cents...

[joe yap]

Don't worry too much. These accidents are super freaking isolated. But do use your instinct and knowledge learnt during the course. Sound travel a lot faster in water than in the air. If you hear a boat engine running, it'll sound as if it is very close to you anyway. In the first place, if you hear it, do not ascend to surface, hold on to your depth gauge and trust the reading religiously, while staying well below. The surroundings can't tell you much about your depth you are at anyway. Only attempt to surface if the sound of the boat is steady ( meaning the boat is stationery) and quite a distance away. Look above you and check for safety while you ascend, and not just let yourself float up to the surface without looking at where you go.

The only big problem I know is that novice often do not control thier bouyancy well, especially when the tank is depleting. As the air density becomes lesser in the tank as the pressure drops, the bouyancy will increase. As such, be prepared to release more air from your BC. I usually keep myself under negative bouyancy during ascend and usually fin myself upward to the surface. You'll get better depth control in this way. Bouyancy control becomes very much more sensitive towards the last few metres.

Shine your dive torch towards the sky while ascending to let people on the surface know your location. Also, use it to reveal your position after you surface.